Reimagining the shooter in 2014

Evolution or revolution?

2013 isn't even over, but we're already looking forward to next year with GameSpot's Most Anticipated for 2014 series. Which games are our editors most looking forward to over the next 12 months? Over the next five days, we'll identify 10 of 2014's hottest games, starting with the shooters we think will make a huge impact on the way we play this popular genre.

There's an old saying: the only things certain in life are death, taxes, and more first-person shooters. But that doesn't mean that shooters have to be the same old experience year in, year out. Two of 2014's biggest games may be first-person shooters, but they're approaching the genre in new and interesting ways, incorporating persistent online worlds or rethinking the way you move through a shooter's environment. Little wonder, then, that Titanfall and Destiny are two of GameSpot's Most Anticipated Games for 2014. Read on to see what some of our editors think of these promising new shooters.

Titanfall

I'm desperate to be excited by multiplayer shooters again, and it looks like Titanfall is the game that's gonna do it.

GameSpot Editor Mark Walton

Mark Walton

It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of first-person shooters, or rather, the monotonous military-based affairs that have become so prevalent. Don't get me wrong, I still have a blast with the likes of Counter-Strike: Source or Team Fortress 2, and BioShock Infinite fills the gap for something story-driven. But the multiplayer shooter is due for a shake-up, and I've got a sneaking suspicion that once people get their hands on Titanfall, they're never going to want to touch Battlefield or Call of Duty again.

Why? Partly because it's from the studio founded by the people who made Call of Duty one of the most popular games on the planet. But also, jetpacks. And mechs. Those two elements dramatically change the way the game plays. You're no longer fixed to the ground, lumbering along with a rifle as you hunker behind some cover and pick off bad guys. The freedom the jetpack gives you to leap off walls and bounce off rooftops is exhilarating.

And then there are the Titans, powerful tools to be sure, but ones that leave you open to attack from above as soldiers rip off panels and try to shoot your brains out, giving you no option but to eject and hope for the best. It sounds like the sort of thing that would be heavily scripted, but I played Titanfall at Gamescom, and these events are every bit as organic as a well-placed headshot. I'm desperate to be excited by multiplayer shooters again, and it looks like Titanfall is the game that's gonna do it.

Kevin VanOrd

I love games that make it fun to simply move through their worlds, particularly when moving means performing parkour moves. But I'm also a fan of games that have a sense of weight. When you slide into cover as Marcus Fenix in Gears of War, for example, you feel the heft of that armor and the mass of Marcus' muscles. Titanfall brings these two seemingly disparate elements together, allowing you to pilot a giant hefty mech called a Titan, but also granting you a jetpack and setting you free to run across walls and get the drop on your opponents.

This is Respawn's chance to show once and for all that it has that imaginative spark that can lift a brand-new property off the ground.

GameSpot Editor Kevin VanOrd

I also think that Respawn, a developer made up of former Infinity Ward designers, has a lot to prove now that it has left Call of Duty behind. This is Respawn's chance to show once and for all that it has that imaginative spark that can lift a brand-new property off the ground.

Granted, Titanfall is a shooter, so no one could praise Respawn for being the world's most diverse developer. Nevertheless, I like to think that the designers there want to let their creative energies loose in a way they hadn't been able to for years. And if that's what they've truly done, then Titanfall could very well be an unignorable force.

Eddie Makuch

Halo is hands down one of my favorite shooter franchises of all time, and I don't see how you couldn't be excited by the idea of Bungie getting its hands dirty creating a new world and lore. From everything we've heard, Destiny is an ambitious, connected world that I can easily see myself getting lost in--and with some friends, too.

The massive scale of the game is another reason to be excited. It's going to unfold over the span of a decade, giving Bungie time to craft all-new stories and experiences that we can't even fathom right now. There's also the matter of in-house Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell teaming up with Sir Paul McCartney to score the game's soundtrack. The soundscapes in the Halo games blew me away, and surely the legendary Beatles musician will bring something unique to the table.

For all we do know about Destiny, Bungie is keeping much more behind the curtain. What is the story? Will its multiplayer be as impactful for next-gen consoles as Halo was for the Xbox? Despite these questions, fulfilling my "Destiny" in 2014 is easily one of my most anticipated gaming pursuits for the new year. And with a beta scheduled for early 2014, the wait is nearly over.

Destiny lets you explore--from the cracks and crevasses of the moon to the dead planet Mars. You can jump in a spacecraft and just fly. It speaks to the spirit of adventure in all of us.

Kevin VanOrd

I'm not really into Halo. And despite being one of the few living adorers of the developer's anime action game Oni, I am not a big Bungie enthusiast either. And yet everything I've seen of Destiny speaks to me.

Perhaps it's the big, beautiful world. Perhaps it's the prospect of seeing what Bungie can do outside of the Halo universe. Mostly, however, I think that it's the prospect of a dynamic online game that brings players together and pulls them apart as the situation requires--a not quite massively multiplayer online approach that combines the ease of a single-player campaign with the joys of cooperative adventuring.

Destiny has the look, the feel, and the sound of a game that could keep me hooked.

GameSpot Editor Kevin VanOrd

Moreover, if Bungie adds new content as frequently as it says it will, Destiny could very well be the game I return to again and again. Too few shooters spice their games with true exploration, and those that do, such as Borderlands, don't always appeal to me. However, Destiny has the look, the feel, and the sound of a game that could keep me hooked.

I'm interested in Destiny. It looks like a more mature, Halo-fied Borderlands 2, which I am just fine with. I need people who also want to play it though, and those I don't have yet because it isn't coming to PC anytime soon. My friends want to play on PC if at all possible.

none of these games look close to revolutionary. Titanfall might be played by myself if its really good, but i dont expect much, You cant expect much these days, the revolutionary time is over since most gamers just buy the same cod shit over and over again.

1996 - Mario 64

1997 - Final Fantasy VII

1998 - Half-Life/Ocarina of Time

1999 - Unreal Tournament

2000 - Deus Ex

2001 - May Payne

2002 - Metroid Prime

That was an revolutionary time and i just picked my personal choice for best game of the year.

Then CALL OF DUTY started, MS and the Xbox started, took over the good PC games, not much new ideas since then. Sequels that came out then wasnt as good as the original games and focus was only on graphics since 2005/2006 and the start of the PS3/Xbone360.

Since the games became more and more casual and Cod or BF is far away from hardcore but the core of casual and mainstream gamers that are destroying the market year over year.

There are still great games and for example the soul series is really one of the best of all time, Indie Games like Minecraft which already sold 33M and will be released on PS and eventually on Nintendo Consoles is more then a call for revolution, where are the good PC Games, that are fun on PC and will bought by millions, tehre always been such games and the shooter games had maybe a few years till ms and sony broke the gerne and made all games the same lame console gameplay.

Look at Max Payne 3 or Deus Ex HR, those are a bunch of crap compared to the orginal games. While still produced in a goodway.

MOST REVOLUTIONARY would be to be ablo to play with key and mouse on consoles, that might change back the games from lame to fun.

Most hardcore were the Wii Games in this time, and now its the WiiU for sure ...

As others have already pointed out, there will be no revolution or reimagining. But it's not the game's or the developer's fault. It's the player base. There won't suddenly be 1 million people that never played other multiplayer shooters before. It will be the same crowd that plays COD and whatnot. All they want is new maps, new graphics, new weapons and a new mechanic here and there. They'll get just that and not a "revolution".

I like the freedom to leap off walls and bounce off rooftops but I doubt people will stop playing Call of Duty and other shooting games. People like choices and I am enjoying a new class of shooter game. http://po.st/eKm3pp

Jesus! people are reacting like it's going to be a wheel reinvention.Nothing revolutionary here,just an amalgam of what we already saw in few other games.Been playing shooters since 1995,i think the genre has reached its peak and it can only decline from there.

The jetpack is just a gimmick, its hardly revolutionary. Its not going to make current gameplay mechanics irrelevant all of a sudden, it merely adds an extra dimension. Surprised to see some taken in so easily by it.

Re imagining? Destiny looks just like Halo. Bungie made one of the best games I ever played with Halo and it looks like they are trying to cash in on that idea again. From the guns to the player models it just screams Halo.

I'm interested in both games, but will only be considering Titanfall as it's the only game coming to PC. I'll probably have a PS4 by the time Destiny releases, but I won't be buying it on principle. I don't buy Bungie's bs excuse to not release it for PC.

More like stagnation. It's obvious that these 'new' shooters are just a lump of aging mechanics. I still remember the abysmal article by Chris Watters calling the recent CoD installments 'innovative,' this shit is no different.

To be honest, i thought Titanfall was going to be something innovative to look forward too, but after reading the section covering it, ive come o ralize that the things they praise it such as the mechs and the jetpacks.Namely, Halo did them both, though of course there will be new features on next en consoles. As it stands, it doesn’t stand as well as Destiny does

Completely agree with everything. But as some people have pointed out, we, True Gamers are a minority nowadays.Though, when the system resets it's self, casuals are long gone and innovation will be the main thing along with fun and challenging gameplay once again. And that, isn't too far away considering that the game industry now again is only about money, and not games. It happened once before, and soon about to happen again.

@stev69 Tribes came to mind when they mentioned jetpacks in an FPS. I was also thinking there were mechs in several FPS games like Quake 4, FEAR and Riddick, oh, and the free-to-play Hawken. Battlefield 2142 also had a mech mixed into the on-foot and other vehicles :)

Ok, true. I do concede that I don't know everything about jetpacks being in video games, and yes, I'm would say I'm pretty young compared to the lot of you so the "halo has jetpacks" is a little ignorant. I should have clarified that what I mean with the jetpacks and halo is that that was one of the most recent games to such an item for its multiplayer. I do remember now that duke nukem for the playstation did have jetpacks, but that's the earliest game I've played that i remember being able to use it

Whats this whole "Halo has jetpacks" thing? Are people just so young to have played Tribes? Tribes series came way before Halo and has had jetpacks eversince. Tribes (1998) and Halo (2001). Do the math..

@quakke i guess there will be always times that have something in it that changes a lot, but the time around the last decade was somehow not really focused anymore.

People have nearly all freedoms of what entertainemnt they want, evreything is splitting more and more and to much inforrmation is coming out as people cant focus on all these stuff or filter it by themself.

Back in the 90s the TV was still the most influence on media, people working for good money did that and ofr a long time it was focus on quality, TV qquality changed to not needed anymore and now its just everything, every stupid guy posts on youtube, write on his blogs, post it on facebook, twitter or whatever.

People without the needed brain cells might not be able to filter these informations correct and just go for the most mainstream produccts or or do what friends are doing.

Its something that just happens when the stupid mainstream people start to get in, there are neraly the same amount of people going for quality then people going for the mainsream products,

look at music today and back in the 60/70s, you will ever find more originalality in teh roots of some products, some with movies, the time the BIG movies came, they were all pretty good, not there are far away from that in neraly every aspect, it lacks of ideas and much more.

Thats what is happing with games these days too, its sad but as with other arts you can expect to get some new influences with time to time.

I think we already have that with indie games, that also shows just how much the market lags of good ideas and games that give this to the players.

Some Indie games are really geat and while most dont look as good as aaa tiles they still have more amounts of included arts and are more artiscal products about visuals and gameplay, just like it was in 90s and maybe a bit in the 80s ((while there were strong limitations about possiblities)

Tribes has had jetpacks since 1998 and Mech Warrior has done the robots since nineties. Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament have also more free movement due to vertical leveldesign (jump pads, elevators, rocketjumping..) eversince 1999.

Destiny doesn't look too good either. It's bunch of Borderlands+Halo+Star Trek ideas with Call of Duty console ironsights style gameplay+some RPG style things. And that for the most part has been exploited to max already since 2007.

It was garbage after playing it for about an hour but you did exactly that. Running on walls to get onto roofs and the like. It also had a "storyline" but no actual campaign. Just a copy and pasting of it's multiplayer modes. This is essentially the exact same thing as Titanfall is panning out to be. Except Titanfall is adding mechs and jetpacks.

I'm not saying this game is going to be a shit-stain on this generations track-record like Brink was to last gen, but I wouldn't turn into a giddy school-girl over this one like the majority of the FPS gamer populace is. The game is looking as if it's going to be awesome. But so did Brink.

Just don't get your hopes up. It could be the bees-knees or it could be dog-vomit.

I dunno. Perhaps in this day and age this is innovation to some people. But still. This headline "Reimagining the shooter in 2014" doesn't exactly fit in with Titanfall since it's the same old console CoD gameplay mechanics, which in this case are The Shooter, and yet it stays the same. So how is that innovative to have the same core gameplay? There is nothing new in the gameplay department. You still have to aimdown the sights, hide behind covers to regen (or jetpack to high air) and stop to shoot since sprint disables running while gunning.

When i've seen that all of those other things (such as jetpacks in Tribes) have already been done (and imo better), i can't help but not take this as innovation. If the gameplay wasn't this typical military/CoD console gameplay, then i would be more open since even if it was more classic FPS gameplay, it would be kinda innovative since it hasn't appeared in pretty much a whole decade or something so it's still completely new to some people who have never experienced it. Other people also take it with open arms since this CoD gameplay has been rinse'n repeated non-stop since 2007.

@quakke I don't follow either games, but if you need to describe a new game with than 4 old games and a genre, doesn't that qualify as being it's own product? Innovation doesn't necessarily mean needing a feature that is completely never-seen-or-done-before new.

I don't like shooters when my avatar is the best console Shooter ever? Goldeneye 64 along with Halo. Yeah that must be the case.

"Funny when was the last time you played a game running across walls then
jumping from wall to wall to get on a roof? the only game that comes to
mind is prince of persia and that isn't even a FPS,"

Howabout Mirror's Edge? It's FPS and was released in 2007 and you exactly ran sideways on walls to get to the roof/higher ground. You did exactly the kinda wall movement/utilizing enviroment in it, as you do in this.

"also when was the last time you played a MP only game with the story in the MP it's self?

Now you're moving on really weak ice. When that is something ground breaking that a mp game has some story in it. There have some PC titles overtime, can't think of their names at this point.

@quakke Also I didn't say it dose anything new I said it's the way that it dose it that makes it interesting to people who love shooters maybe you should read my comment in future and just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not a good game go look at RPGS or something dude.

@quakke Funny when was the last time you played a game running across walls then jumping from wall to wall to get on a roof? the only game that comes to mind is prince of persia and that isn't even a FPS, also when was the last time you played a MP only game with the story in the MP it's self? To say Titanfall isn't interesting either means your retarded or you don't like Shooters at all and in that case you shouldn't even be commenting in the first place. I also think this game looks much much better than any Unreal Tournament, Tribes game etc etc by a long way, look at the gameplay from E3 it's easily the most interesting shooter they'res been in years to say otherwise either makes you a fanboy or an idiot.